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Original poster

Will omicron end the pandemic more quickly?

73 replies

Florelei · 29/12/2021 09:41

After we have managed to get through this hideous wave are things expected to be more normal?

I don’t see how we can have high levels of cases indefinitely. Surely there’s got to come a point when we reach some sort of equilibrium and can resume a form of normality?

OP posts:
Wineloffa · 29/12/2021 11:33

@OldaRailer

But are you going to get pneumonia and need the hospital?
No but I’m trapped in my house for 10 days and have had to cancel a trip to see my family (for the 2nd Christmas in a row).

Surely this isn’t sustainable going forward for such a mild illness. I hardly have any symptoms.

Walkaround · 29/12/2021 11:33

@roadwarrior

The only other circulating coronaviruses apart from covid are SARS and MERS (both deadly). After the millions of people who have died from covid worldwide I don't think it's fair to compare it to a common cold.
That’s untrue. There are other human coronaviruses - currently 7 coronaviruses in common human circulation and hundreds that circulate within animal populations of various types. SARS and MERS are just the two other most recent ones to mutate to infect humans before this one, both very serious, but there are others that have been infecting humans for far longer and which generally cause symptoms no more serious than the panoply of viruses referred to as the “common cold.”
OldaRailer · 29/12/2021 11:34

No that part isn't sustainable.
Restrictions are over for the symptom free in South Africa for example.

NynaeveSedai · 29/12/2021 11:34

@imstilljenny2

I think Prof Chris Whitty said because Omicron peaks very quickly he expects it to fall very quickly too. However I'm now wondering 'how' it will fall without a lockdown. If it's very easily spread why should the numbers fall? I don't really understand!
Lockdown wouldn't make it fall it would prolong the wave. We want people catching it. Now is the time the herd immunity comes to play.
WhenSheWasBad · 29/12/2021 11:37

Is there any data showing if this wave is causing more hospitalisations and deaths than we'd have in a bad flu season

Death registrations have been higher than the five yearly average for months now. Some of it is Covid deaths, some of it is excess deaths.
No idea what will happen with the Omicron variant. I think this graph only goes up to 10th Dec.

Will omicron end the pandemic more quickly?
Will omicron end the pandemic more quickly?
imstilljenny2 · 29/12/2021 11:38

@NynaeveSedai unfortunately I'm in Scotland so we are in a sort of lockdown with whole households having to isolate for 10 days if one member in the household tests positive.

Cattitudes · 29/12/2021 11:43

@roadwarrior

The only other circulating coronaviruses apart from covid are SARS and MERS (both deadly). After the millions of people who have died from covid worldwide I don't think it's fair to compare it to a common cold.
Most colds are either coronaviruses or rhinoviruses. Obviously at the moment the term is used more commonly to describe SARS-CoV-2, but there are other coronaviruses out there causing mild symptoms.
OldaRailer · 29/12/2021 11:48

Plus SarsCov1 isn't circulating at all and MERS is only thought to circulate in camels. So they are not part of the group of commonly circulating human corona viruses.

tulips27 · 29/12/2021 11:51

@StillNo

We ARE in a normal situation. People ALWAYS have colds this time of year (a term which encompasses many mutations of similar virus types). Most mild, some worse.

Just look around you right now and imagine; if you had never heard of covid on the news, if there was no such thing as LFT’s and no masks on people - would you actually think we were in a terrifying pandemic? Or just good old fashioned winter?

I’m not denying that covid wasn’t ravaging through at the start. But this is what viruses do. They constantly mutate and therefore weaken over time.

It's not true to say that all viruses weaken through time. If they did, then HIV etc. would not exist.
OldaRailer · 29/12/2021 11:52

You co

AlecTrevelyan006 · 29/12/2021 11:58

This is what will end the pandemic

www.theguardian.com/money/2021/dec/29/uk-households-warned-of-year-of-the-squeeze-as-cost-of-living-soars

It will also quite possibly end Johnson’s reign as PM

MaxNormal · 29/12/2021 12:18

The only other circulating coronaviruses apart from covid are SARS and MERS (both deadly). After the millions of people who have died from covid worldwide I don't think it's fair to compare it to a common cold

"Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold."

www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/coronaviruses

roadwarrior · 29/12/2021 12:54

Sorry, I should have been more specific. Yes, there are many coronaviruses in the world, most affecting animals, 7 known to affect humans, but only 3 are CoV: covid-19 ( or SARS CoV2) MERS CoV and SARS CoV.

luckylavender · 29/12/2021 12:57

@WhenSheWasBad - you can definitely get it more than once

luckylavender · 29/12/2021 12:59

@Bluntness100 - no credible expert has said this is the end of the pandemic.

Summersdreaming · 29/12/2021 13:01

I was a close contact on Xmas day and sure enough I tested positive this morning. So that's 2 x confirmed covid infections within 6 months after 2 vaccines. So no I don't think this will ever end. Had I taken the offer of the booster I would be on 3 vaccines and 2 infections.. how many will it be this time next year?

The only way it will "end" is ending testing and isolating when the hospitals are under control (if the NHS ever recovers)

VaguelyInteresting · 29/12/2021 13:11

Per @Summersdreaming and their experience - perfectly sums up how we should be managing our expectations.

You don’t expect to become immune to colds after one or two cold infections do you? You accept that not all flu vaccines will
Work perfect in that flu season etc.

It’s nonsense to think immunity to covid will
work any differently to colds or flu, and anyone still hoping for zero covid-19 is deluded. Endemic is the best we can hope for, and where we’ll end up.

UnconditionalSurrender · 29/12/2021 13:14

I was a close contact on Xmas day and sure enough I tested positive this morning. So that's 2 x confirmed covid infections within 6 months after 2 vaccines. So no I don't think this will ever end. Had I taken the offer of the booster I would be on 3 vaccines and 2 infections.. how many will it be this time next year?

Or if you had that booster you might have been on 3 vaccines and 1 infection.

DockOTheBay · 29/12/2021 13:16

@imstilljenny2

I think Prof Chris Whitty said because Omicron peaks very quickly he expects it to fall very quickly too. However I'm now wondering 'how' it will fall without a lockdown. If it's very easily spread why should the numbers fall? I don't really understand!
Because there are only a finite number of people, once a certain amount have had it they won't get it again. If they don't get it, they also won't spread it. That is what they mean when they refer to "herd immunity".
DockOTheBay · 29/12/2021 13:22

@roadwarrior

Sorry, I should have been more specific. Yes, there are many coronaviruses in the world, most affecting animals, 7 known to affect humans, but only 3 are CoV: covid-19 ( or SARS CoV2) MERS CoV and SARS CoV.
Doesn't CoV just stand for "CoronaVirus"? In any case its very "fair" to compare it to the common cold as many common colds are caused by coronaviruses.
Summersdreaming · 29/12/2021 13:25

@UnconditionalSurrender

I was a close contact on Xmas day and sure enough I tested positive this morning. So that's 2 x confirmed covid infections within 6 months after 2 vaccines. So no I don't think this will ever end. Had I taken the offer of the booster I would be on 3 vaccines and 2 infections.. how many will it be this time next year?

Or if you had that booster you might have been on 3 vaccines and 1 infection.

I love your positivity but the close contacts are triple vaccinated so that seems unlikely.
littlepeas · 29/12/2021 13:34

I think we probably just have to accept that we need to add Covid to the list of things that we may die of when we get old - there are plenty of other things on that list after all. Yes, there are some outlying younger people who have died, but that is the case for pretty much everything else too - it is mainly older adults who die of cancer, heart disease, strokes, flu/pneumonia and so on with the odd unfortunate younger person being affected.

Maybe that sounds callous but it is not sustainable to carry on as we are. And yes, I do have older relatives that I care about and yes, I do know I will be old myself one day.

OldaRailer · 29/12/2021 13:38

More specific? You've been wrong on every statement made.🤨

Wineloffa · 29/12/2021 13:39

@UnconditionalSurrender

I was a close contact on Xmas day and sure enough I tested positive this morning. So that's 2 x confirmed covid infections within 6 months after 2 vaccines. So no I don't think this will ever end. Had I taken the offer of the booster I would be on 3 vaccines and 2 infections.. how many will it be this time next year?

Or if you had that booster you might have been on 3 vaccines and 1 infection.

Not necessarily. I’ve had 2 vaccines and a booster and currently have Covid for the 2nd time.
OldaRailer · 29/12/2021 13:39

That comment to "roadwarrior"